UPDATE 16/6/’14: I got a police letter today apologizing for the the behaviour of the airport personnel: “Ich möchte mich an dieser Stelle für das Verhalten der beiden Mitarbeiter entschuldigen und bedauere, dass Ihnen dadurch Unbehagen entstanden ist”.
Remains unclear the choice regarding the minced meat if it is a liquid or not, I left that to them to clarify as it is totally on a rule-of-thumb basis…. since the industry is putting a mark in milligrams on its plastic containers and not milliliters. THIS WAS IT> http://www.edeka-scharrer-shop.de/product/22715-Ruegenwalder_Muehle_Teewurst_fein_im_Becher_125_g
UPDATE 23/5/’14: A police representative wrote me back that they are investigating about the event and they’ll keep me posted as soon as they have gathered some facts about the incident.
UPDATE 15/5/’14: I got contacted on Monday, 12th May, by the person in charge of customer experience at the Berlin Airports. Seems that those guys are reporting directly to the border police officers. I’ll try to contact them
short-version of long story: I was travelling from TXL to MXP carrying 2 snacks of german teewurst (meat) to be spread on bread the guy at the security asked me to trash it, without thinking twice I went to the bin, which was full, so I left them on top of it
but then I realized that I was entitled to carry them, as a) they were not liquids, or at least their measurement on the box is obviously not in milliliters but in gramms… and b) even if they could argue it was a liquid thing, they definitely were under the 100ml each … so, I asked why I had to trash them > the same guy replied that I was not entitled, I argued instead that I was, he carried on… then at that point I asked to talk to his manager
escalating
his manager argued I couldn’t… then finally one of their colleagues pointed out they were not in a resealable-transparent-plastic-bag… they were instead in their plastic container, in a normal shopping plastic bag… I asked for one, but they refused me one… I then argued that they should have had them available, and the manager harshily replied that was not supposed to be the case… at that point I gave up and went to the gate
2nd attempt
I passed through the duty free area, and I asked to such a bag, I kindly got one, and I went back to the security to retrieve my goods > wrong, I was pushed back cause the bag was not transparent… gave up, went back to the gate, returning the bag at the duty free
3rd attempt
they guy at the duty free then kindly came back to me again, with a bag, with a zip, transparent… it was perfect… I went back to security > at this stage, with a big smile on their faces, the guys at the gate pointed out that _by_coincidence_ the cleaning guy passed by and pushed my goods inside the trash bin… so, if I wanted I could dig into it to retrieve it…
conclusion
at that point I was out of myself… outraged, offended, humiliated, I asked the guy that had me trash them to provide his name; he refused the name, and had no identification sign on his clothes … I was almost missing my flight, I went back to the gate
followup
at home, I wrote on Berlin Airport communication form, but as of now (3 days later, weekend has passed) I have no answer whatsover > I want to reach the HR department, walk over with a security officer to the gate and identify the guy: if anybody from Tegel airport is reading this, it was the security personnel, of a third party company, in charge at 18:15 (on Friday 9th May ’14) at the security screening towards gate C68
retweet me
bullied by @berlinairport / TXL security http://t.co/m9J87Fsx96 since they had no clue about carrying liquids regulations #unpleasant #harsh
— Guido Serra aka Zeph (@zeph1ro) May 12, 2014
Guido Maria Serra 